Abstract:
The alcohols, amines and nitro compounds, both aromatic and aliphatic are ubiquitous in
various pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, natural products and dyes. They play a very
significant role in constructing different drug molecules (Figure 1). The incorporation of
these groups especially to the aromatic ring is of great research importance. Specifically
in the presence of different functional groups, the syntheses of phenols, amines or nitro
compounds under milder and green reaction conditions without affecting the other
functional groups, are always a challenging task for the chemists. Both hypervalent
organoidine compounds and boronic acids/esters, in this respect, are non toxic and
considered as green reagents. Furthermore, the reactions with these reagents could be
performed under mild reaction conditions. Therefore, our aim was to develop new
methodologies for synthesizing diversely functionalized phenols, nitroarenes or amines
utilizing these two important reagents under appropriate milder reaction conditions.
O OH
OH
OH
HO
O
OH
Quercitin
(anti-oxidant and anti-inflamatory)
N
NO2
H3C
7-Methyl-8-nitroquinoline
(anticancer, antitumor, antiallergetic)
EtO2C NH2
benzocaine
(topical anesthetic)
Figure 1 Selected biologically important phenol, ntroarene and amine compounds
The thesis entitled “Hypervalent Organoiodine Promoted Ipso Transformations of
Boronic Acids/Esters” covers discussions on five novel hypervalent organoiodine(III)
mediated methodologies, developed by us for ipso functionalization of boronic
acids/esters along with relevant literature review associated with it. The contents of the
thesis are divided into five chapters. Among them, Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 contain two
sections (Section A & Section B) in each. Chapter 1 describes general introduction to
hypervalent organoiodine chemistry, whereas Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 deal
with the ipso hydroxylation, nitration and amination of boronic acids/esters, respectively,
which are based on the experimental work, carried out by us. Chapter 5 includes the
summary of the complete work as the conclusion.
Chapter 1: General introduction to Hypervalent Organoiodine Chemistry Hypervalent organoiodine compound is one of the wonderful and important class of
reagent having all-round applicability in the field organic synthesis. The upswing in the
use of hypervalent organoiodine reagents is due to their profound versatility and
considerable similarity with the metal based reagents like Hg(II), Ti(III), Pb(IV)
compounds, but without metallic toxicities. The useful mild oxidizing property in
combination with their envirionmentally benign character and commertial availability has
made the hypervalent organoiodine reagents as more convenient alternatives to toxic
heavy metal congeners. In this chapter, general reactivity principle of the hypervalent
organoiodine molecules, arising out from their structural disposition has been concisely
discussed. Furthermore, the general preparatory methods of commonly used hyprvalent
organoiodine compounds and their applications for functionalization of the organic
molecules have been briefly reviewed.
Chapter 2: Ipso Hydroxylation of Boronic Acids/Esters Mediated by Hypervalent
Organoiodine(III) Reagents
The alcohols, both aromatic and aliphatic, are important structural constituents of
numerous natral products, pharmaceuticals and polymers. The conventional approaches to
prepare phenols were through activated nucleophilic substitution of aryl halides and via
formation of benzynes from suitable precursors. In recent years, arylboronic acids or
esters, owing to their commercial availability and remarkable stability, have been widely
utilized for different functionalization including hydroxylations. In this respect, both
metal promoted and metal free methods have been documented in literature on ipso
hydroxylation of boronic compounds. In this chapter, we have described two
methodologies, in two different sections, for ipso hydroxylation of boronic acids and
esters promoted by organic hypervalent iodine(III) reagents. In section A, iodobenzene
diacetate [PhI(OAc)2] (PIDA) mediated ipso hydroxylation of the boronic acids and in
section B, orgnoiodine(III) catalyzed ipso hydroxylation of the boronic acds/esters have
been discussed.
Chapter 2: Section A: Ipso Hydroxylation of Boronic Acids/Esters Mediated by
[(Diacetoxy)iodobenzene] (PIDA)
In this section, a metal free, highly efficient methodology for ipso hydroxylation of
diversely functionalized aryl- and alkylboronic acids/esters, mediated by iodobenzene
diacetate (PIDA) has been elaborated (Scheme 1). This protocol is also applicable to N-heterocyclic boronic acids and esters. It is an open flask hydroxylation reaction. The
reaction is very fast and quantitative, completing in less than 10 minutes at ambient
temperature. A notable feature of this protocol is that among the two electron demanding
species [arylboronic acid and PhI(OAc)2] involved in the reaction, arylboronic acid in
spite of being a Lewis acid, can be predicted to act as a Lewis base in the presence of a
more electron demanding species, PIDA.
PhI(OAc)2 (1.5 equiv.)
CH3CN-H2O, rt, 10 min
B(OH)2 OH
1 2
Et3N (2.0 equiv.)
R R
Scheme 1 PIDA mediated ipso hydroxylation of boronic acids
Chapter 2: Section B: Organoiodine(III) Catalyzed Ipso Hydroxylation of Boronic
Acids/Esters
In this section, we have described a novel methodology for hypervalent organoiodine(III)
catalyzed ipso hydroxylation of aryl-, heteroaryl- and alkylboronicacids/esters to access
functionalized aromatic, heteroaromatic and aliphatic alcohols. The ipso hydroxylations
of the boronic acids and esters were achieved by using the catalytic combination of 10
mol% of PhI and 2.0 equiv. of NaIO4 as a co-oxidant at 80 0C in CH3CN (Scheme 2). The
protocol exhibits wide range of functional group tolerance including the aldehydes which
are prone to get over oxidised easily. It was the first report of a generalized route for
hypervalent organoiodine(III) catalyzed ipso hydroxylation of boronic acids and esters.
Scheme 2 Organoiodine(III) catalyzed ipso hydroxylation of boronic acids
Chapter 3: [Bis-(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene (PIFA) and NBS Mediated Ipso
Nitration of Boronic Acids
Over the last century nitroarenes and nitroalkanes have been considered as versatile
structural motifs because of their wide range of applications in pharmaceuticals,
pesticides, dyes, agrochemicals and polymers. They also play a vital role in the development of mechanistic concepts. Nitroarenes are generally synthesized via direct
electrophilic nitration of the arenes. Later on, some notable achievements have been
documented in literature toward regioselective syntheses of nitroarenes under mild
reaction conditions. In this chapter, we have presented a very useful methodology for ipso
nitration of boronic acids using a combination of PIFA–NBS and NaNO2 as the nitro
source, under milder reaction conditions (Scheme 3). The protocol is applicable for aryl-,
heteroaryl-, and alkylboronic acids and provides nitro compounds at ambient temperature
in a significantly less reaction time exhibiting a broad range of functional group
compatibility. It is anticipated that the reaction proceeds through in situ generation of
NO2 and O-centred boronic acid radicals followed by the formation of an O–N bond via
combination of the said radicals. Finally transfer of the NO2 group to the aryl moiety
occurs through 1,3-aryl migration to provide the nitroarenes. In this context, it could be
mentioned that it was the first report to use the combination of PIFA and NBS which
would act as an acidic hydrogen radical abstractor. The simplicity, high efficiency, use of
easily available inexpensive reagents and also the chemistry associated with it are the
salient features of this method.
B(OH)2 NO2
PhI(OCOCF3
)2
CH3CN, rt, 3 h
1 2
NBS, NaNO2
R R
Scheme 3 PIFA-NBS mediated ipso nitration of boronic acids
Chapter 4: Ipso Amination of Boronic acids Mediated by [Bis-
(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene (PIFA) and NBS
Both aromatic and aliphatic amines are ubiquitous in various pharmaceuticals,
agrochemicals, natural products and dyes. The aromatic primary amines are the most vital
moieties to construct different N-heterocycles and thus play a significant role in the
branch of medicinal chemistry. It is needless to say that over the recent decades,
significant advancements have taken place in the field of synthesis of secondary and
tertiary anilines. On the contrary, much less attention has been devoted for development
of efficient methodologies to synthesize primary amines under mild reaction conditions.
The long established approaches to prepare the primary amines are the metal mediated
reductions of the nitro compounds and via treatment of metal amide to the benzynes in
liquid ammonia. In addition to that, several metal-promoted and metal-free primary aminations of aryl halides and aryl boronic acids have been reported in the literature in
recent years. In this chapter, we will elaborate two methodologies for synthesizing
primary amines via ipso amination of boronic acids utilizing the reagent combination of
PIFA and NBS. The chapter is divided in two sections: Section A and Section B. In
section A, PIFA-NBS mediated synthesis of primary amines via ipso amination of
boronic acids using methoxyamine hydrochloride as the amine source, will be described,
whereas, in section B, PIFA-NBS promoted chemoselective synthesis of primary amines
using cyanamide/arylcyanamide as the aminating agent has been presented.
Chapter 4: Section A: Metal and Base-free Synthesis of Primary Amines via ipso
Amination of Boronic Acids Mediated by [Bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene (PIFA)
and NBS
In this section, we have delineated a novel metal and base free methodology for preparing
primary amines via ipso amination of boronic acids using a combination of PIFA-NBS
and MeONH2.HCl as the aminating agent (Scheme 4). The method is applicable for aryl-,
heteroaryl-, and alkylboronic acids and produces amino compounds at ambient
temperature within 2 h. The amines were primarily obtained as their trifluoroacetate salts
which on subsequent aqueous alkaline work up provided the corresponding free amines.
The combination of PIFA–NBS is found to be the mildest choice compared to the
commonly used strong bases (e.g. n-BuLi, Cs2CO3) for activating the aminating agent.
The reaction is expected to proceed via activation of the aminating reagent followed by
B–N 1,2-aryl migration. The reaction conditions employed in the protocol show a wide
range of functional groups tolerance especially to the carbonyl, nitrile ester and halogen
which are hard to synthesize through some of the previously reported methods in this
field. The utilization of PIFA-NBS combination, as a milder alternative to a base, acting
as an acidic hydrogen radical abstractor is one of the remarkable features of this method.
B(OH)2
CH3CN, rt, 2 h
1 2
aq. NaOH
Ph
NH2 I(OCOCF3
)2
- NBS
MeONH2.HCl
R R
Scheme 4 PIFA-NBS mediated ipso amination of boronic acids
Chapter 4: Section B: Chemoselective Primary Amination of Boronic Acids Using
Cyanamide/Arylcyanamides as Aminating Agent In this section, we have demonstrated a unique metal and base free method for
chemoselective synthesis of primary amines via ipso amination of boronic acids using a
combination of PIFA-NBS as acidic hydrogen radical abstractor and
cyanamidyl/arylcyanamidyl radical as the aminating species (Scheme 5). The reaction
conditions employed in the protocol exhibited a wide range of functional groups
compatibility especially to the carbonyl, nitrile and ester. The method is applicable for
aryl-, heteroaryl- and alkylboronic acids and produces corresponding amino compounds
at ambient temperature within 1 h. Furthermore, computational studies utilizing Density
Functional Theory (DFT) have been performed to understand the mechanism of the
reaction in depth. The DFT study in combination with experimental observations
validates that the ipso amination of substituted boronic acids involves the formation of
cyanamidyl/arylcyanamidyl radical, followed by regiospecific interaction of its nitrile-N
centre with boron atom of the boronic acids, culminating to chemoselective primary
amination. The use of ambident cyanamidyl radical and its exclusive specificity to utilize
the nitrile-N centre towards the arylboronic acids leading to specifically primary amines
is no doubt a unique study in this field.
NH2CN or ArNHCN
PhI(OCOCF3)2, NBS
CH3CN, rt, 1 h
aq. NaOH
B(OH)2
1
NH2
2
R R
Scheme 5 Chemoselective ipso amination of boronic acids mediated by PIFA-NBS
The aforementioned pieces of work on the ipso functionalization of boronic acids are
shown below in a schematic diagram to have a quick look (Scheme 6).
R
B(OH)2
PhI(OAC)2, Et3N
CH3CN, rt, 10 min
R
OH
R
OH
PhI (10 mol%), NaIO4 (2.0 equiv.)
CH3CN, 80
0C, 8 h
PhI(OCOCF3)2, NBS
NaNO2, CH3CN
rt, 3 h R
NO2
PhI(OCOCF3)2, NBS
MeONH2.HCl
CH3CN, rt, 2-3 h
PhI(OCOCF3)2, NBS
NH2CN or ArNHCN
R
NH2
R
NH2
Scheme 1
Scheme 2
Scheme 5 Scheme 3
Scheme 6 Organoiodine(III) assisted ipso transformations of boronic acids
Chapter 5: Conclusion
In this chapter, the summary of the whole work has been described. In addition, potential
future aspects of the thesis are indicated.